jansho

This is really awesome, thank you for starting the project. When I research for a learning plan, I often look at other people’s learning plans for guidance. Then as I go through the plan, I adjust accordingly. I like that the learning plans on the website can be community-edited, but because there can be no best learning plan, it would be even more awesome if you can have multiple high quality (based on votes) learning plans for a single subject. Hmm

Can you expand a little bit more on this please? Did you gradually trained yourself to focus more?

Very sound advice, thank you. It’s as you said, more organisation is the simple answer but it’s quite an effort to get there. Making progress slowly though..

> one of the attributes that has helped him the most is his ability to efficiently context switch and get serious work done throughout the day.

> A major thing I haven't really figured out is maintaining / reviewing

These two are particularly interesting for me. I find that switching between tasks is the most stressful, where I feel overwhelmed most often. And that of course wastes time too.

I also find that even though I was productive, its also easy to forget what I learnt. Which makes it wasteful too. I try to keep a learning journal but this itself can take time because I tend to muse - perhaps this is where I should focus on making it more efficient

This is the dilemma that I have, I have a burning desire to do everything. Actually I had eight (eight!) projects, and naturally found it overwhelming. Finally got the list down to (about) three, but it’s still mentally-taxing to switch between them and keep track of progress. Despite all that, I love learning them... this up-and-down feeling is really tiresome

Are you the owner of learn-anything? I like how the pathways are mapped out like a tree. It’s great for guidance, but isn't taking the time to figure out your own learning pathway also beneficial? Because you have your own needs and way of learning after all

I like the way you prioritise! You say that you have a billion unfinished things, do you have a way to keep track of them, so that in the future you can pick one up right away?

I actually prefer hardware because I find phone timers distracting (i.e. I start procrastinating on the Internet!)

What a coincidence, I’m waiting for my tomato timer to arrive! I am definitely trying this, thanks

I’m a minority, had health issues in the past, tried to “man up”, still got some people not taking me seriously and thanks to politics it went viral anyway. What now?

Even though I understand what you’re saying, I’m being defensive here because every person’s case is unique and it’s not really fair to tell them to “man up”. We already know that, thanks, but most of the time it’s just not enough to improve the situation.

My god it’s much harder to start up in Europe! Most startup literatures are actually US-centric but I didn’t realise just how massive the differences in the U.K. and US are. Considerations like VAT, soon-to-be GDPR, bureaucratic nightmares and the fact that getting funding is an almost cut-throat process...

Sure you can start up in the US, but just getting in the country is already hard. And why should this be the only option for poor startups!

Watch out for GDPR coming soon in your local area (EU)!

I know there are specialist JavaScript libraries for this, but I find it hard to believe that there aren’t any WYSIWYG tools that allows you to create layouts and add interactivity such as hotspots and simple animation..

Are there really millions of startups

This is an excellent point. If digital textbooks are sold as alternatives to physical ones, then I’m not interested as they’re the same copies but one is in a more convenient format (for me.) Why aren’t digital features taken advantage of more often? When I first saw iBooks, that got me excited. Sadly that kind of interactive eBooks never really took off.

For me it’s the medium itself. eBooks are ok if they’re short or fiction, but for heavy duty reading, I need a wide spread, and I need to be able to annotate and flick through fast, either to preview or jump to another section. Can’t do all that on a digital device.

It’s just heartbreaking that the solution to cholera is so simple. Boiled water and salt/sugar solution. What on Earth is going on in Yemen :(

Yes it’s insensitive the way you put it, but being in motion is crucial. Don’t aim to “change lifestyle”, instead focus on doing very small things. When I had chronic depression, making my bed was a big thing. If you trip over again, nevermind, do another small thing like washing the cup you’ve just drank from. Or getting out of bed. But whatever action it is, pretend that you’re a robot and focus your consciousness to the task. Nothing else, because you’re a robot.

It might take a long time to build up but the hardest part really is the first part. Hope this helps someone :)

Volunteering is good. If you find that you focus attention on yourself too much, try shifting it to others. But keep the activities simple (manual and repetitive, like soup kitchen stuff.)

It’s also a good excuse to get out of the house, do minimum socialising and just observing the world around you. No expectations like performance measures and salaries either - your job is to just give a little.

Sorry, this is a strawman response. I was pretty clear about my concern for unfortunate unintended consequences; nobody is saying that there's a Silicon Valley conspiracy in action! Incidentally, I agree with your points on the benefits of social media. And it's awesome that we have so much engaging content today, but please explain if it's really OK for kids to get hooked on YouTube etc five hours a day. The solution is not to ban or demonise, but how we can educate people to have more control in their use of technology. Even Nir Eyal recognises this and implements tech restrictions in his own household. It's like gambling - sure we have self control, but let's be honest, gambling companies work very hard to make it addictive (I specifically used the term "psychologically hacked" earlier).

That's a natural response to be expected from companies, user engagement is tied to company health/profitability/etc so it makes sense to maximise it as much as possible. But earlier when I called for a new design philosophy, I am hoping that tech companies can be better than that. Because you are right, nearly all of them start with a genuine belief that their tool can help people, or at the very least, it's cool and yo let's spread the word. The tools still work, like Facebook still functions as a platform to connect relatives and old classmates, but it has also become so much more than that: it's a news platform, it's a media engine, it's a publisher, it's an ad-clicking farm and so on. The tools have evolved into systems, which other forces (commercial companies, political groups etc) have learnt to leverage for their own benefit. They have become complex and life-evading enough that they can't be called neutral anymore, despite the company's best intentions. And I'll go as far as to say that these companies have some accountability.

As a daily Instagram user, I do take offence with your comment regarding Instagram and girls - you are caricaturing a lot. It's not just high-fiving about body confidence and taking random selfies...

I remember from university how solar is great for cheap and cheerful power applications, and fairly easy to set up. This platform is great idea! My 2 cents: can there also be a 'pitch-like' page or infographics explaining the basic configuration of solar power for newbies? This could encourage beginners to join in and share more, so there will be a nice diversity of simple hacks and ingenious projects.

This is true for me too. It's funny that we can now literally connect to thousands of people in social media, but through likes and short comments. Sometimes I get the impression that long threads of discussion is not encouraged, that it's polite to just keep it short and sweet (example, when Instagram introduced the "like comment" button, I sometimes find myself using it rather than thanking directly.)

So our connecting is more like lines crossing over briefly, but never more than that. Sometimes this is fun - because where else can you encounter other people different from you - and sometimes it's just a little sad.

They won't just bring "refreshing linguistic restraint" though, if you have two campaigns doing the same product idea, but one has a slicker video and can promise bigger rewards, which would you back? For crowd-funding platforms that proclaim support for the "small people", I can understand if some people feel a bit cheated.

Personally, I like to go for the artsy projects because these can't be found elsewhere (except maybe Etsy) so I've learnt to filter out the "money-grabbing" spam. Inevitably you'll have noise in a system, like eBay's counterfeit problem, but I just don't think that you need large companies presence to deal with it.

Social media is primarily intended for talking to friends and family. As others have pointed out in this thread, the reality for most people is closer to mindless browsing and addiction. That's because the systems are designed to 'hook' people that way. I'm not suggesting in any way that social media, shopping etc are bad (I use them all the time) but as the Internet is literally at our fingertips now, I do think that we need to be more cautious of unintended consequences, for individuals (particularly vulnerable ones like children) and for society as a whole. We're already seeing some of them today.

So the question to ask now is, regardless if you're solutionist/ Luddite/ neutral/ etc, how do we tackle this? Do we need to tone down some of the 'hook' features? Do we need to totally discourage unethical tactics like dark patterns? What can we do to educate/push people towards a healthier Internet diet, to have enough will to protect themselves from being psychologically hacked? This is an entirely new design philosophy, maybe not so good for big tech corps, but can potentially push the Internet to the next level.

Edit: language

> But they also provide access to Wikipedia [etc]

But let's be honest, most smartphone users spend their time confined in a limited number of domains: social media, games, shopping etc. In that sense, we can be called a bit zombie in the head.

Not anti-crowdfunding for large companies, but consider this: what happens if these companies start flocking in Indiegogo and Kickstarter? The main ethos of crowdsourcing platforms is to give extra leg-up to lone inventors and small startups so that they have a chance to be competitive too, but if you have large companies with their big budgets and finely tuned marketing, would these platforms still provide fair ground for everyone?

As the author pointed out, Indiegogo is supposed to focus on the "underdogs":

"Our mission is to empower people to unite around ideas that matter to them and together make those ideas come to life... We know building something from scratch is hard, so we’ve got your back."

> If the product ends up being subpar, the company has nothing to lose, so what's their incentive to make a quality product?

That's an interesting thought. Assuming that the company is already worth millions/billions of dollars, I wonder if it can give extra assurance of a money back guarantee to unhappy consumer backers. Especially if the company primarily intends to use crowdsourcing as a form of product validation.

There's also the risk of unhappy but influential backers going public about what they think. Crowdsourcing for big companies must not be as fun as your typical Kickstarter campaign!

> it would me like me calling you an asshole without knowing you.

That's not a fair comparison. I skimmed through the manifesto and followed the Damore case close enough to reach that strong opinion (I didn't just wrap myself in Guardianista commentary). After that, and watching his reactions, I just don't have the time nor care to study his manifesto line by line. Would you, if you find a person that you just cannot respect, and have many more to do and think about?

> If there really were fundamental differences, that would not be possible.

I'm not really sure if I understood your point properly - I've clarified elsewhere in this thread that this was an assumption, and gender isn't the only factor in the differences of the ways we think (so when I said "both" in my parent comment, this is because I am looking at the situation solely with the gender lens).

But I share with the general sentiment of your post. I'm don't really care for fundamental differences etc, even if we have them, so what, it still doesn't change the fact that diversity is generally a great thing. I also found empathy goes a long way, IMO that's the only way to deal with diversity and cut past discrimination. Of course there are also the intellectual and material rewards of diversity that we are all familiar with...

Goodness, it's so hard to explain this, forgive me if this is just more confusing than ever.

I haven't read it either, and won't like to. After his arrogant/weird responses, I'm sure it's pure intellectual bullshit. I don't know what his exact motive was, but he sure seems to enjoy the storms he's caused. I just dislike people like that.

> more likely ... due to environmental differences.

Maybe, which still affects how we think because we're still classified by gender in society. The assumption that I made earlier is probably intuited from personal experience and countless books like "Men are from Mars..".

I'm not shy if it does turn out that male and female brains are wired differently (that sounds really awful), but my point is really that ultimately, we all think differently. Because we're not just defined by our gender, there's so many other factors like upbringing, autistic or not, etc. And then there's also free will.

We should celebrate this diversity.